Not Just A Lie
by totalyfab
Summary: He was the man with a heart of stone. She was the girl who saw the light he could not find. Seto
1. Prequal

I should have known he could never love me

I should have known she was too close.

Everybody warned me about him but…

I fell in love with her anyway.

He was everything to me, but I was nothing to him

I had to let her go…I wasn't making her happy. It's better this way

He told me he loved me

It wasn't a lie

He told me he needed me

What am I going to do without her

Never again…

I'm so sorry…

This is the story of Serenity Wheeler and Seto Kaiba. They both fell in love, against their own intuitions and both ended up with a broken heart. The chapters will alternate the same story…one from Seto's point of view, the other from Serenity's. Showing their feelings on the same situations. The question, though, that you must ask yourselves as you go through this story is…will they find each other again. When one leaves, to free the other, will their love as strong and true as they believe it to be…bring them back together. Or will they let the bonds that separate them, keep them apart.

A/N: I know very very short. But this is just the introduction. I'm using this as a writers block killer and I think it's working. I will continue my other stories…but this one is calling to me right now. I can only use the computer every couple of weekendsI work and my only computer is at my dads place…but I will try to update as much as possible, even giving my little sister my stories to type and post if she will. What do you think? Worth pursuing? Kisses

Vamarlla


	2. How they Met

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for coming back for chapter two! I know I know I know…I need to finish My Diary…but I am having serious writers block…I need to get in a dark mode and type…probably at like midnight some night that I'm not working the next day…but I PROMISE I will finish it! I promise.

Disclaimer: Do you really think if I owned Yugioh I would be writing off base stories and posting them on Seriouslyyami: Translation: she does not own yugioh

Serenitys POV:

I remember very clearly the first time I saw him. Really saw him, I mean. Bakura was missing during the Battle City Tournament up like 4,000 feet in the air in his blimp. I say Kaiba was over-compensating for something; but that's a whole different issue.

The gang (a name that, to be honest we don't use that often, but was given to us by people on the outside and is a good way of short handing a lot of names) and I went to his office to beg him to land the blimp. No one was terribly confident it would work, but we had to try.

Kaiba proceeded to tell us that we couldn't make an unscheduled stop(which, when you stop to think about it actually makes a lot of sense) But that wasn't going to stop Joey. I knew he would do whatever he had to and he was looking for a reason to hit Kaiba. I could tell he was preparing by the lack of blood in his face and the abundance in his fist. So I took the two steps that would, inevitably, change my life. If that seems over dramatic, I apologize. But if I hadn't moved, none of the following events would have happened. Indeed, I probably wouldn't be writing this now.

Shorthand: I stepped in front of my brother, towards Kaiba.

"Kaiba, please!" I begged him. I realize now I probably looked ridiculous. Mu hands were together as if I were praying and my knees were partially bent. Somewhere behind me I heard Tristan say "Yeah, come on man." But his voice became muffled as Kaiba turned his icy glare on me and all the blood rushed to my ears.

Embarrassing Fact: My ears and cheeks turn dark cherry red when I'm nervous.

But Kaiba just kept on staring. I thought I would cry.

After what seemed like an eternity(but I found out was only about 10 seconds) Kaiba stood up and walked to his intercom.

"Medical Team," his voice was deep and appealing to me for an odd reason I have yet to find out, "Find Ryou Bakura, bring him back to his quarters and treat him to the best of your abilities." Kaiba released the button under his finger and a prompt, "Yes, sir" echoed around the room.

Kaiba turned to look at us.

"My team is assembled of the best doctors in the world. Better than any you'll find on the ground. You dorks satisfied yet?" He asked, taking long strides toward us. I couldn't look away. He was tall and broad-much more so than I had remembered-I was entranced, though he didn't once look at me.

"Get out. I have work to do." He stated coldly, turning his back and walking back to his desk. He moved very gracefully for a man his size.

Then he did something suprising. He turned his head and looked right in my eyes one last time before returning to his paperwork.

The rest of us turned and shuffled out of his door.

"I hate that arrogant son of a…"

"Watch it Joey." Yugi warned.

"He's a heartless mean bas…"

"Joey." Yugi warned again. Then Mai's southern-slash-New York style accent reached our ears.

"I swear that man has no feeling at all. Happy , sad, guilt. Nothing." Next to me, I felt Joey tense.

Everyone knew how much Joey liked Mai; and how much Mai adored Joey. The only people who seemed to have any doubt about what was going on between them were the two people in question. A fact the rest of us laughed about behind their backs.

"What about…hate?" I asked. I was always told he was hateful…but hate is an emotion and Joey is slightly biased.

"I don't think so. You see, sugar, hate is a feeling. And like I said before, I don't think Kaiba has it in him to feel." She walked closer to us, her purple heels 'clacking' on the metal floors with each step.

"I'm going to bed. 'Night kids." She said, walking past us and through a door on my right.

To be honest, I didn't know if I agreed with her or not about Kaiba. Everyone has to feel something…it's just a matter of how much they hide it from everyone else. And I could swear, when he looked me in the eyes that second time…I saw something. I didn't know what. I probably never will. But there was something.

It was three days before I saw Kaiba again.

They had lost control of the blimp and we were being dragged off course.

Those of us who hadn't had our souls taken by Marik to what Yugi called the "Shadow Realm" ran to the blimps control center.

It was enormous! Like a bigger, more sophisticated and modern version of the one on Star Trek(and as far as I know, we didn't have aliens piloting)

Apparently some foreign, unidentified object had locked onto us and over rode the computer system, using a magnetic force to bring us in.

Kaiba ran in shortly after us. After the whole panicking about what was going on thing and I replayed the incident in my mind, I noticed how absolutely amazing he looked(you know…for a jerk.)

Brown hair a mess, white coat flaring out behind him like a diamond encrusted cape. His cheeks deep red from sprinting and unprecedented anger in his eyes.

"What's going on!" He roared so loud right next to me I thought I might go deaf. Everyone went silent. It was always amazing me to me how afraid of a 16 year old the gigantic CIA trained men were.

"W-w-we aren't sure sir! It looks like someone's bypassed our security system."

"How?" He was no longer shouting, but that made him seem more dangerous. The venom in his voice painfully obvious.

"We aren't sure." The computer operator-slash-body guard was obviously unequipped to handle the stresses that come with a teenage, ego-centric boss brought on.

"Well I suggest you find out before you find yourself jobless in a third-world-country." His voice dropped an octave but the guard shrank in his seat and began typing rapidly. Another operator in the corner spoke up

"We have no control, sir." Kaiba growled. Then a big, youthful face with bright green hair appeared on the giant screen in front of us.

"Hello, Seto" his voice was only further evidence he was a child. Kaiba seemed to take no notice, other than growling again, this time more menacing than anything I had ever heard.

"Who are you?"

"Now now now, Kaiba. Don't tell me you've already forgotten me. I'm hurt." He had on a wicked smile that contradicted his words.

"What do you want?"

"Welcome to my lair, Seto. Lets play." The screen went static and then to the looming scene before us.

We were over a large body of water. A sea or an ocean. And out of the water rose…I don't even know what. This huge concrete…thing with metal doors and no windows. It looked like a building, but at the same time didn't look anything like a building. And what's worse was-we were about to find out what it was! Two large garage like metal doors began to open as we drew closer to the monstrosity before us.

Suddenly we all flew forward as the blimp was brought on tracks into the building. I flew into Kaiba and we landed on the ground-me on top. Just as quickly he was on his feet, putting down, looking at me with those deep blue eyes and turning to observe everything he could about the unfamiliar place we were entering.

At that point though, I wasn't thinking about where we were going or what was going to happen…I was just thinking it was a good thing he turned away as quickly as he did, or I may have melted into him; and I spent the next few minutes convincing myself I was just out of breath from the fall.

To shorthand the least important parts of what happened next:

We debated what to do about Mai being all alone. I opted to stay with her(though I found out later that Marik was also staying…) I figured I wouldn't be of any help to anyone anyway.

Everyone was gone for a day and a half before they came back-all looking very disturbed; and Yugi speaking even more harshly when Joey would say something bad about Kaiba.

The only thing I ever found out was that the kids name was Noah and he was related to Kaiba somehow. Bu that's all anyone would say

Our next stop was Kaiba's duel tower. A signature of his step-father which he had destroyed at the conclusion of the tournament. Of course, he didn't tell us he was going to have it destroyed and when the building came down we all panicked because we thought he had been killed by one of the massive cement bricks falling on him. (Turns out he had a chopper ready to take him and Mokuba safely away. )

The last look I had at Kaiba for two weeks was him hanging out the door of his helicopter, brown hair being blown around(yet remarkably staying out of his face) and his icy eyes staring down at us.

"Man, I hate that guy." Joey said.

"Me too." I said…but my voice broke.

A/N: What did you think? The next chapter will be Seto's view on this and will be at least a bit longer because of Kaiba's tendency to over think EVERYTHING. It also won't be as mushy. I mean, come on. It's Kaiba. Oh! And don't get me wrong with this whole thing because the chapter kind of messes you up. Serenity HATES Kaiba because of Joey…but she does think he is very good looking(and she's not wrong :D) I'll be back soon! Kisses

Vamarlla


	3. How the Met prt 2

Disclaimer: I still don't own Yugioh. Amazing, I know.

A/N: Should I change the introduction? Maybe add something to it or completely change it? And should I change the format of the story? Or is the Serenity POV with a matching Seto POV chapter a good way to do it? Let me know! I want to make you all happy.

I hope you enjoy Ch 3!

Seto's POV:

Paperwork. An infinite amount of paperwork.

"Mr. Kaiba, The Hiroshima toy shop in Japan needs to know when the new holographic video games will be available for market."

"2 weeks. The bugs still need to be worked out."

"Thank you sir." She hangs up.

2 weeks wouldn't be nearly enough time for anyone else, that's what she was thinking. I could hear it in her voice. She's been with me for 3 years and she still underestimates me.

Women.

I rub my eyes and begin to type again when I hear the 'whoosh' of the automatic doors open and close and Wheeler's nasal Brooklyn accent reaches my ears.

"Kaiba, we need to talk to you."

It has been three days since I slept. 24 hours since I ate. I read somewhere that you can go three weeks without food(a theory I have tested, it's true, though after about 2 you don't have enough energy to move yourself without an abundance of will power)but only 10 without sleep. Doing the math in my head I figure you would run out of energy and fat supply within 5 days if you neither slept nor ate so you would fall comatose or die.

Deciding they don't care I lean back in my chair and prepare myself for idiotic ramblings.

"What do you want, Wheeler."

Yugi stepped forward.

"Bakura's missing."

"I fail to see where this is my problem."

"He's sick!" Tea Gardner's grating voice feels like nails on chalkboard to my suddenly throbbing head.

"Come on! Can't you land this thing?" Tristan Taylor speaks up next.

"Why?" I would describe to you how little I care about the geek squad and it's members, but not only would it take all day, you still wouldn't understand my contempt.

"He needs to be in a hospital!"

"Listen. Even if I gave a damn about your little group of geeks, I still can't make an unscheduled landing. We are 4,000 feet in the air. We are 4 miles long, 3 wide and three-quarters wide. What you are proposing is out of the question.

"Come on Kaiba." The mutt speaks again. I want to hit something,

"We can't." As far as I was concerned the subject was closed. Then this red headed vision stepped forward. I looked her up and down. Long, shapely legs. Perfectly curved waist and hips. Round breasts. Her ears and cheeks a surprisingly appealing red. Long graceful neck. As she spoke I tried to remember who she was. Then it hit me.

Serenity Wheeler.

Joey Wheeler's little sister.

Damn.

Why do these things always happen to me?

Tristan saying "Come on, man. How can you say no to that?" I hated to admit it, but he was right. And wrong.

I stood up and walked to the intercom wired throughout the blimp and paged my medical team.

"Medical Team, find Ryou Bakura. Bring him back to his quarters and treat him to the best of your abilities." The voice of James, the head doctor on my staff, answered

"Yes, sir." I turned to their little group; the looks on their faces ranging from surprise to hate(but no grateful, I noticed)

"You dorks satisfied yet?" I began to walk toward them, hoping to make my point clear(careful to avoid Serenity's eye) They weren't moving. I sighed mentally.

"Get out. I have work to do." I walked back to my desk. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking up one last time and caught Serenity's eyes. The innocence in her eyes caught me by surprise. There was no hate in those eyes as she looked back at me."

'Wait 'till she gets to know you.' a voice in my head laughed.

'Not even a possibility' I remind myself as I watch their little gang walk out the door.'

'Damn hormones' I thought.

"I hate that arrogant son of a…" I heard the older Wheeler begin. I rolled my eyes. I began to tune out their conversation(cursing my above average hearing) when something Serenity said caught my attention.

"What about…hate?" she was saying. It was Mai's voice that responded.

"I don't think so. You see, sugar, hate is a feeling. And like I said before, I don't think Kaiba feels."

I almost chuckled. The ignorance. None of these people know me. I have spent maybe a total of 10 minutes with all of them; no personal time at all, and they assume they know me. Ha.

I spent the next three days dueling and working on the release of the new duel system. Serenity didn't cross my mind once. Then I got a call from

Leland(my head of security) Mr. Kaiba, sir. We're going off course!" He sounded panicked.

"Why?"

"We don't know, sir."

"Fix it! I'll be down there in a moment." I said through gritted teeth. Imbeciles.

None-the-less I ran to the control room. Yugi and the 'gang' were already there.

'Of course.' I thought; and then I realized I was standing next to Serenity as the smell of Lavender reached my nose.

'And the day gets better.' I thought, sarcastically(though what the point of thinking sarcasm is, I still haven't figured out, but sometimes you just can't help it)

"What's going on?!" I yelled. More anger seeping through than I initially intended.

The room fell silent. Sometimes, I love the effect I have on people.

"W-we aren't sure, sir. It looks like somebody has bi-passed our security system."

"How?" I dropped my voice to a venomously low level. It had the desired effect as the operator shrank back in his chair.

"We aren't sure."

"Well, I suggest you find out before you find yourself jobless in a third-world country."

"Uh..y-yes sir."

Another of the overpayed help stood up.

"We've lost all control."

'You think you've lost control' I thought as another whiff of lavender filled my senses.

"Well get it back." I was about to say, when the screen went to white noise before a vaguely familiar face filled my screen.

"Hello, Seto." 'He knows my name?!'

"Who are you?"

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten me. That hurts, Kaiba."

"What did you do to my system?"

"Welcome to my lair, Kaiba. Lets play." The screen went to static for a second, then we watched as a large concrete garage began to rise out of the icy waters over which we were hovering.

I calculated our rate of speed vs the how far away the garage was and figured we would reach the building in about 2.4 minutes. I had just begun to calculate how long it would take to escape based on how quickly the doors were moving, when the whole blimp suddenly jerked and I hit the ground.

When my eyes adjusted to the small thing laying on top of me I had to stifle a gasp. Serenity Wheeler had tumbled into me and here we were. Her small ands resting on my shoulders. Her head in the nape of my neck; red hair scattered in an amazingly sexy mess.

'Damn' I thought for what must have been the 10th time in 2 hours.

I stood up as quickly as I could, lifting her by the wrists and putting her down gently. Joey was just idiotic enough to start a fight now if he thought I was being rough with his fragile baby sister

Phasing past my moment of weakness, I turned around and attempted to finish my calculations, but the smell of lavender and strawberry shampoo filled my brain.

'Knock it off, idiot. This is too crucial a time to be thinking about a worthless Wheeler! Get it together!' The voice in my head chimed.

We were inside the garage and my patience was worn out.

"I'm not playing your game!" I said. I knew our captor could hear me. If he had control of my navigation system, he had control of my P.A. System. It only took a split second for the little brat to prove me right.

" I don't believe you have a choice, Kaiba." I heard the 'clang' as the metal door to my machine hit the stone floor and Leland let out a pathetic child-like scream as hot, red lasers materialized in seemingly random places across the room.

"Fine. But you will lose this." And so began a day and a half of hell.

Yugi's little group found out the less graphic parts of my past with my step-father.

Noahthe obnoxious green haired sonof my step-father had a grudge because I was running the company that would have been his if he hadn't died in some tragic accident. He was only semi-existent because my step- father had uploaded his sub-conscience into a computer and created a virtual world for him. Later, Gozoboro had done the same with his own sub-conscience after an unfortunate fall from the Kaiba-Corp building.

Those two idiots tried to beat me.

Needless to say, the lost.

We returned to our tournament. I had an old war machine factory of Gozoboro's where I planned to be crowned King of Games once again. Instead, I came in second. I will not be humiliated again.

When the tournament concluded I had the building demolished. The geek squad got out safely while Mokuba and I headed toward a chopper buried underground.

The walls started cracking. Bricks started falling. To be honest, we almost didn't make it.

The last thing I saw as we flew into the air was Serenity-staring up at me, a small smile on her lips.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update. I actually had this chapter done a while ago, I just didn't finish typing it. I am almost done with Chapter 4 though so it will be up by next week depending on how tired I am after work next week. I have to go to work but I will post this the second I get back! Don't forget to Review!

Kisses

Vamarlla


	4. Lunch

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Serenity's POV

The last two weeks of Summer Break were sir real; in a perfect kind of way. Yugi, the Pharaoh, Joey, Tea, Tristan and I spent every waking moment together. We went to the movies, hung out at the game shop and at night we sat in Yugi's room telling scary stories in an attempt to make sure no one got any sleep on those long warm nights.

But I had one main problem. During the day, my mind was clear and free. At nights, however, I dreamt of Him. In every one of my dreams Kaiba was a main player. His deep cold eyes staring through me…but I loved it. In my dreams I almost craved his presence.

I knew I was being stupid. I did, really. Kaiba was untouchable. Not only did Joey loathe him, he loathed everyone else. He was heartless and cold. Pretentious, rude, stubborn, and mean. I hated him. But I couldn't escape the feelings that had run through me that last time as he flew away on his chopper, staring down at us. I felt so pathetic. But part of me was nagging that there was something more to him then what the surface showed! I was sure of it! When I asked Tea what she thought all she said was, " I don't really know. In all the time I've spent with Kaiba I've never seen even the smallest inkiling he cared about anything but Mokuba or his company.

Yugi told me, "May be you should ask him. No one could give you a better answer than the man himself." Damn Yugi and his big, trusting heart.

"Yugi!" I yelled at him, "He would KILL me!" It was then the Pharaoh chose to step in.

"Serenity," he said, the faint traces of a smile on his face as I slammed my head against the floor in frustration. "No one shows everyone the whole truth about who they really are. The fact that he has the ability to love and care for Mokuba more than he cares for himself tells us that he has the ability to feel and to care. Let that be enough."

And I thought that was that. The Pharaoh was right. Of course he was right…the Pharaoh had an uncanny ability to see through to what you really wanted to know and tell you the harshest possible truth-though he was never ever wrong. So I let the subject drop and the dreams stopped.

Then came Music Class. Kaiba was in my class. The teacher (a devilish woman with a gray rat nest of hair) sat us next to each other.

He smelt amazing. The jerk was wearing an obviously expensive cologne. The kind that, when you smell it you close your eyes and drift into a hypnotic state until someone pulls you out of it.

"Wheeler," his icy voice brought me back with a jolt.

"Kaiba." I said, using the same cold tone he had used.

"How's the mutt?"

"Shut up, Kaiba." I whispered. It wasn't the most intelligent thing I could have said, but it wasn't the dumbest either.

"Careful, Wheeler. One day your stunning verbal gymnastics may leave someone dazed and drooling on the floor. And you wouldn't want that, now would you?"

I had no response for him. How dare he! I looked over at him and saw the tiniest traces of a smirk tugging at the corners of his porcelain skin That sent me over the edge.

"You think you're real smart, don't you? Well I have some news for you- you aren't impressing anyone!" He turned his head to look at me.

"You and your little group of miscreants opinions means nothing to me, Wheeler."

"Then how come you're trying so desperately to beat Yugi in a duel? If yo don't care about anyone else's opinion then who cares who holds the title if you really believe you're better?" I narrowed my gaze and watched as his deep topaz eyes lit up with hate. He opened his mouth to respond when, but Mrs. Walker beat him to the punch.

"Do you and Mr. Kaiba have something you want to share with the rest of the class, Ms. Wheeler?" My head snapped around to look at her. The wrinkles around her mouth were so deep that her lips looked as if she was in a permanent state of anger and scolding. It made it difficult for her students to know when she was actually angry and when she was just teaching. Of if she were both all the time.

"No ma'am." I said, still feeling Kaiba's gaze on my face as it started to glow red with the blood rushing from the rest of my arteries to fill my cheeks.

"Then I would appreciate it if you two would save the flirting for when I'm not teaching. Thank you." She raised one badly drawn on eyebrow and walked back to the front of the room. My face as if it were on fire as I looked around at everybody staring at me and Kaiba. Looking over at him, however, he looked perfectly calm and composed. As if nothing had happened. How did he do that! Looking closer, I saw that an even bigger, more arrogant smirk had found its way to his perfect face.

"I HATE HIM!" I yelled, after telling Tea what happened in class. I ran a frustrated hand through my tangled red hair. (side note: no one really knows where I get my red hair. My father is brunette and my mother is blonde. Joey got the blonde…but me? I think it looks all right anyway.)

"We told ya, sis. Kaiba's a jerk."

"I know! But the arrogance that is rolling off of him is tangible! It's…Unbelievable!" I continued shouting. I know I shouldn't have been as shocked about his arrogance as I was; but I couldn't help it.

I was about to start shouting obscenities when I saw him walking across the schoolyard toward out lunch table. I felt the blood rushing to my face yet again, so I moved my hair to cover my face and looked down. It looked as if I were intently studying my shoes.

The crunching of the grass coming closer and then stopping right by me made my heart race. Looking to the left I saw a familiar pair of brown shoes.

"Fantastic display today, Wheeler. Brava." Kaiba's deep voice said, accompanied by mock applause.

"Shut up, Kaiba." I heard Tea say. I cringed, knowing he was going to make some rude sarcastic joke that would get Joey going. But Kaiba didn't respond. Instead, he leaned down close to my ear and whispered, "That color looks good on you, Serenity." And then he was gone.

One minute I felt his hot breath on my neck, and the next just a cool breeze.

"What did he say?" Yugi asked, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"N-nothing. It was nothing."

I was so embarrassed that I could hardly summon ant sound to my voice, and when I did, it betrayed my by cracking.

"You sure?" I was about to answer, when I felt someone walk up beside me and my heart literally stopped.(I read somewhere that it is physically possible for your heart to stop for a moment and then re-start on it's own.)

"Hey, Serenity." Duke Devlins voice greeted me warmly. I may have smiled, but I could still feel Kaiba's breath on my neck and hear his voice in my ear. Duke sat down next to me and put his arm around my waist. Yugi moved to the other side of the table(moving to sit extra close to Tea, I noticed)

"I saw Kaiba over here, you all right?" he said. I didn't believe the concern in his voice. To be polite, though, I looked up at him and smiled.

"Yeah. Just Kaiba being Kaiba. How are you Duke?" I said, standing up in a mock attempt to stretch my legs before sitting on the grass (while I was really just trying to get away from him. He was way to close for comfort)

And from that point on for the rest of lunch everyone in our little group talked about dueling and the tournaments and things that I never really cared about. So, instead of listening I just kind of zoned out and started trying to figure out what it all meant.

Was Kaiba complimenting me? Or mocking me? I kept thinking about his eyes and his cologne so close to me-gouging a hole straight through me.

'Knock if off, Serenity.' I heard the reasonable part of my self say in my head. 'He's a jerk. He's playing with you. DUH! And you're letting him get to you! Shame on you'

I looked down at my white and pink flowered tank top and smiled. I swear I heard the voice in my head sigh.

The piercing ring of the school bell brought me back down to reality. I gathered my books and was walking toward the school house when I felt a hang on my shoulder.

"Hey, Serenity," Duke said matching his stride to mine. His bright green eyes stared down at me nervously, a crooked smile on his lips.

"Oh…uh…Hey, Duke." I said. We were walking into the school now and I felt the air conditioner blow pleasantly across my face.

"You look beautiful today. Serenity. But then again, you look beautiful every day." He said, his voice dripping with fake charm that most girls would have gone weak in the knees for. Instead I just said, "Thank you Duke." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

We walked the rest of the way to my class room in silence. I was contemplating the fact that Duke's comment hadn't had nearly the same effect on me as Kaiba's cryptic whisper had. When we reached the classroom I turned to look at Duke and said, "Well, this is my stop. You should probably get to class as well. You don't want to be late."

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," he said, clearly not listening. "Serenity, there was something I wanted to ask you. Would you l-" Just then the late bell rang and I ran to my seat. Not because I was afraid I was going to be counted as late. I just didn't want to get into it with Duke.

I liked Duke well enough-but he just wasn't my type. I wanted something…else…not better necessarily…but different.

Besides, I had been told Duke tended to get hostile when he got angry; and I was just not up for that particular challenge. I had MORE than enough drama in my life.

Later that night, while I sat on my bed doing some English homework(okay, I wasn't doing it so much as bsing my way through it when my translucent purple phone rang. I picked the handset off of it's cradle which was sitting on my bed and said, "Hello?" I was sure I hadn't given my personal line out to anyone except Joey.

"Hey," I heard a somewhat familiar voice say on the other line.

"Who is this?" I asked

"Duke Devlin." He sounded offended.

"Oh. I mean, hi. What's up?"

"Well, I didn't get a chance to ask you what I wanted to ask you today. You know, the bell and then Joey." I quietly snickered.

Earlier that day, Joey had sensed something was going on Dukes mind and very obviously did everything in his power to keep us apart. He kept standing between us and cutting Duke off when he tried to speak to me directly. I had never loved my big brother more.

"Anyway," Duke continued, "I was wondering if may be you would like to go out with me some time. To dinner or a movie."

I took a deep breath. Get ready for awkwardness.

"Duke, that's really sweet . Really…but…I just think that it would be awkward. I mean-you're one of Joey's best friends and I'm his little sister. I'm moving in with him in two weeks. If it didn't work out…you know?"

"How about dinner tomorrow night?"

"Duke! Are you listening!?"

"Oh. Don't worry about Joey. I'm giving you what you want. Me."

"The answer is no, Duke." I said sternly, through gritted teeth.

"You don't have to be such a bitch, you know. You would be lucky to have a guy like me. You're lucky have a guy of my status even talking to you." I rolled my eyes and hung up.

Two seconds later the phone rang again.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" I yelled when I picked up, hoping this time it would get the message across.

"So I see you have caller ID." Another painfully familiar voice answered me.

"What do you want, Kaiba?" I asked, a little angrier than I meant to. (but immensely relieved I neither stuttered nor did my voice break)

"I was wondering if you would like to have lunch together tomorrow." His voice was smooth and calm.

"Why? So you can insult me some more?"

"Have I insulted you once this entire conversation?"

"No. But I would assume it's not as gratifying over the phone."

"You would assume wrong." He mostly muttered to himself; then, "You frustrate me like no other creature on this planet, Wheeler."

"My names Serenity." I growled. I was not in the mood.

"Serenity."

"Yes."

"The truth is, I have something I would like to talk to you about, and I would prefer to do it in person. If you wouldn't mind." For the first time his voice lost the monotone and took on some real emotion-something I couldn't quite identify. That's probably what made me say yes.

"Sure."

"Tomorrow, then." He said, and hung up.

"Tomorrow." I whispered to myself, smiling and hugging the phone to my chest; all thoughts of Duke lost for the moment.

The next day I hopped out of bed, exited for the coming day. I found it weird how exited I was about a lunch with my brothers worst enemy. Fortunately, there was little chance he would find out. Joey had lunch detention(again) so the gang would be split up.

I chose a pink halter top and white mini-skirt with matching white tennis shoes. In all my life I had never spent so much time or effort on my appearance, that I felt a little strange walking out of the house and through the halls all dolled up with just a touch of makeup and my hair up in a glittery little clip.

My day was made better by the fact that Duke didn't appear to be at school. I had worried that because of the night before, he would be watching my every move. Someone as arrogant as Duke would assume that the reason he was turned down was not because he was a pompous raging lunatic, or even because the awkwardness between us if it didn't work out. He would assume it was because I had a boyfriend, and the last thing I needed was for Joey to find out I had lunch with Seto Kaiba even once.

I did start to panic, however, when Kaiba wasn't in class. Then I found a note dropped inside my locker written in long curly letters that simply said:

Meet me behind the oak tree at the back gate

S.K

Walking across the school yard after the first bell for lunch rang, I felt increasingly nervous. What if this was a practical joke? What if he was kidding when he called and I didn't get it? What if he had the wrong locker? What if…

And then there he was. Reading a book, long legs stretched out in front of him, his back- straight and tense- leaning against the tree.

"Hi." I said, walking up beside him. He didn't even look up from his book. I stood in an awkward silence for a moment before I took a step to walk away. Kaiba's voice stopped me.

"You can sit." He said.

"If you're going to be a jerk I can just…" I started.

"All right." He interrupted, "I apologize. Please, have a seat," he continued, closing his book and gesturing to a space beside him.

I knelt next to him, tucking my hair behind my ear.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" I wanted to appear strong a confident-but my voice faltered as he turned his icy gaze on me.

"What, no small talk?" he raised an eyebrow.

"How are you?" I said sarcastically.

"Fine. And yourself, Serenity."

"Fabulous. Why weren't you in class?"

"Work."

"But you made time in your busy work schedule to have lunch with me?"

"Precisely." I rolled my eyes.

"What did you want, really Kaiba."

"That's not fair, you know."

"What's that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"You get angry with me for you by your last name, while you continue to call me by mine."

"When you call me 'Wheeler' it's meant as an insult." I said, matter-of-factly.

"Not necessarily. I never said it was an insult. You assumed." He was right, of course. Not that I would ever admit that to him.

"Your tone made it clear." He laughed. It was strange to see him exhibit such an emotion. It was so…human!

"Misperception, obviously." He smirked.

"You look better when you smile." I blirted. He raised one perfect eyebrow again.

"Thank you." he said.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence then,

"Soo…why am I here?" I asked. He smiled. A real smile this time, one that brightened his entire face.

"Are you going to eat?" he asked, casually gesturing toward my backpack with long, tapered fingers.

"You're stalling." I accused, pointing a finger at him, narrowing my eyes.

"All right," he said, his icy mask returning, though his eyes stayed gentle.

"My company hosts a large Halloween party every year. Usually I go alone or bring Mokuba. This year, however, I promised a Japanese associate that if I came without a date, I would court his daughter. It was the only way to close a very important deal. Unfortunately, his daughter repulses me. So, in order to save face as well as avoid a massive and otherwise unnecessary headache-I would like you to be my date. Unless you have plans with your brother and the Geek Squad." I glared.

"You're not winning any points, you know."

"I apologize," he said simply. I waited a moment before I answered.

"Why me? There are a thousand other girls who would kill to be your date-probably literally-and you choose me? The little sister of your arch rivals best friend? Are you sure you aren't just trying to make Joey angry?" Kaiba sighed deeply, leaning his head against the trunk of the tree and closing his eyes.

"Serenity, I have spent years trying to find a woman my age who is dignified and classy. Yes, I could have my pick of any of the girls in this school should I so choose-but they are neither dignified nor classy. You are both, and I trust you won't embarrass me. You are, of course, free to say no."

"What would you do if I said no?" I asked. Genuinely curious. Kaiba lifted his head heavily and stared at me. He looked exhausted.

"Fake my own death." He said, quite seriously.

"Well! We can't have that!" I mocked. I thought I heard him chuckle, but the sound was to low for me to be sure.

"Is that a yes, then?" he asked.

"Yes. It's a yes." I smiled at him, a smile that grew larger when I saw that he was smiling along with me.

"Thank you. Now eat," he said gently.

We spent the rest of lunch talking about the trivial things in each of our lives. His guard never fully dropped, but he laughed quite often as we spoke.

When lunch ended, my heart was bursting to the seams with happiness.

"Goodbye, Serenity. I'll talk to you tomorrow," he said quietly, offering his hand to me as he stood. I smiled.

"See you tomorrow." And with that, he left for his limo while I left for English.

A/N: You know, that was 18 pages on paper? And yet it's only what, 7 here:Sigh: Oh well. Let me know what you thought. The next chapter is Seto's view on this whole thing. Probably much deeper…more uncovering of the man behind the blue eyes…lol. Talk to you soon!

Vamarlla


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